What do you think?
Rate this book
The Horus Heresy #Short Story
Restorer
Shiban Khan has returned to Terra. As the Warmaster draws ever closer, his body is remade and his mechanical shackles cast aside, but there are other, deeper wounds that must still be confronted before he can face battle again.
Read it because
It's another chapter in Chris Wraight's masterful tale of the White Scars as the climax of the Horus Heresy approaches.
23 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2017
5 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Chris Wraight
211 books371 followersChris Wraight is a British author of fantasy and science fiction.
His first novel was published in 2008; since then, he has published books set in the Warhammer Fantasy and Stargate:Atlantis universes, and has upcoming titles in the Warhammer 40K setting.
He is based in the south-west of England.
His first novel was published in 2008; since then, he has published books set in the Warhammer Fantasy and Stargate:Atlantis universes, and has upcoming titles in the Warhammer 40K setting.
He is based in the south-west of England.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 1, 2017
Review also published here
Restorer is a beautiful story. It perfectly highlights just what power the short story format can have, if used intelligently, as an aside to an ongoing saga. It is not a mandatory read to understand the rest of the Horus Heresy by any means, but just enough of a bonus, an epilogue chapter to a character arc from two previous novels, a novella and some shorts, that it is utterly satisfying and moving for the reader.
If you haven't read Chris Wraight's White Scars novels for the Horus Heresy, Scars and The Path of Heaven, you are doing something wrong to begin with. If you have read them, as well as the Brotherhood of the Storm novella (printed in Legacies of Betrayal ), you simply owe it to yourself to read Restorer as well.
It really puts the bow on one of the most striking plotlines from Wraight's Scars stories: The friendship/rivalry between Shiban Khan and Torghun Khan. Where Brotherhood of the Storm established their divergent philosophies of war and showcased Torghun's struggles to accept his place within the Ordu of Jaghatai, and Scars delved even deeper into their origins and paths, with The Path of Heaven handing us the results of their rivalry, which presented the V Legion's own schism in microcosm, Restorer puts past errors, grievances and stubborness at rest in a very introspective way.
An important way, too, if you ask me.
Where many short stories in the Horus Heresy series turn into slices of action across the galaxy, this one brings us to the heart of Terra and gives us insights into the state of the Throneworld in the final months before the Siege. It even gives us a glimpse of the traitor forces' arrival, which may be a first. It does so in a very personal way that speaks volumes about the strength of Wraight's characterization skills. Shiban Khan, for all his faults, invites us to prepare for the impending assault of Horus Lupercal's forces - both physically and mentally.
I honestly believe that Chris got something special here. Even if this turns out to be the final piece in his White Scars saga for the Heresy, it'd be an epitaph worth remembering as one of the most poignant pieces of short fiction across the entire series. It is the final piece that I could only have hoped for after the grim events from The Path of Heaven and puts to rest one of the very few points that book disappointed me with back when I read it.
As far as the depictions of Terra itself go, I can't criticise a thing. There is a clear contrast here to Wraight's recent Inquisition novel The Carrion Throne , with both versions of Old Earth across the Millennia feeling distinct and right, giving just enough of an impression of the world to satisfy curiosity and letting imagination extrapolate the rest. The inhabitants we come across feel troubled and authentic in the situations they are presented in. This is a world just waiting on the edge of its proverbial seat, expecting the arrival of the apocalypse any day now. The dire situation was handled perfectly, in my eyes.
With all that in mind, I cannot recommend Restorer highly enough. It stands as one of the series' finest pieces of short fiction - and with as many dozens of those out there, that's got to count for something.
Restorer is a beautiful story. It perfectly highlights just what power the short story format can have, if used intelligently, as an aside to an ongoing saga. It is not a mandatory read to understand the rest of the Horus Heresy by any means, but just enough of a bonus, an epilogue chapter to a character arc from two previous novels, a novella and some shorts, that it is utterly satisfying and moving for the reader.
If you haven't read Chris Wraight's White Scars novels for the Horus Heresy, Scars and The Path of Heaven, you are doing something wrong to begin with. If you have read them, as well as the Brotherhood of the Storm novella (printed in Legacies of Betrayal ), you simply owe it to yourself to read Restorer as well.
It really puts the bow on one of the most striking plotlines from Wraight's Scars stories: The friendship/rivalry between Shiban Khan and Torghun Khan. Where Brotherhood of the Storm established their divergent philosophies of war and showcased Torghun's struggles to accept his place within the Ordu of Jaghatai, and Scars delved even deeper into their origins and paths, with The Path of Heaven handing us the results of their rivalry, which presented the V Legion's own schism in microcosm, Restorer puts past errors, grievances and stubborness at rest in a very introspective way.
An important way, too, if you ask me.
Where many short stories in the Horus Heresy series turn into slices of action across the galaxy, this one brings us to the heart of Terra and gives us insights into the state of the Throneworld in the final months before the Siege. It even gives us a glimpse of the traitor forces' arrival, which may be a first. It does so in a very personal way that speaks volumes about the strength of Wraight's characterization skills. Shiban Khan, for all his faults, invites us to prepare for the impending assault of Horus Lupercal's forces - both physically and mentally.
I honestly believe that Chris got something special here. Even if this turns out to be the final piece in his White Scars saga for the Heresy, it'd be an epitaph worth remembering as one of the most poignant pieces of short fiction across the entire series. It is the final piece that I could only have hoped for after the grim events from The Path of Heaven and puts to rest one of the very few points that book disappointed me with back when I read it.
As far as the depictions of Terra itself go, I can't criticise a thing. There is a clear contrast here to Wraight's recent Inquisition novel The Carrion Throne , with both versions of Old Earth across the Millennia feeling distinct and right, giving just enough of an impression of the world to satisfy curiosity and letting imagination extrapolate the rest. The inhabitants we come across feel troubled and authentic in the situations they are presented in. This is a world just waiting on the edge of its proverbial seat, expecting the arrival of the apocalypse any day now. The dire situation was handled perfectly, in my eyes.
With all that in mind, I cannot recommend Restorer highly enough. It stands as one of the series' finest pieces of short fiction - and with as many dozens of those out there, that's got to count for something.
April 1, 2024
BIG CW FOR GRAPHIC SURGERY DETAIL
March 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XI Ordu of the Khan (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus...) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus series and extras.
This marks the official end of the Ordu of the Khan omnibus, but I will save my reflection on this narrative for the Khagan's Primarchs book next up.
Shiban, the Chogorian White Scar, who along with the waywayd Thousand Son, the Weathermaker and sacrificial guide of the Ordu, the Khagan, and the Terran Officer, played a starring role in this grand story of the Ordu of Jaghatai has made it to Terra, barely. His battered body and improvised augemetics from the years of harrowing the Traitors need serious work. Throughout his intense surgeries he has fleeting visions of the fallen, before seeing the wise officer one last time and heading out to honour the other major player on the Wraight Heresy, as I came to call him, the Terran Scar, once of the homeworld, almost of the Luna Wolves, and always, if complicatedly, of the White Scars.
This is a beautifully written story that reads almost as an elegy for everything the White Scars were before the Siege of Terra, itself glimpsed in the final moments of this story. It is a wonderful coda on the story of the V Legion and the Wraight Heresy. I know I didn't have a favourable reaction to The Path of Heaven, but this has been an incredible arc with some phenomenal stories with vivid characters, which this feels like such a perfect button on.
I really can't say enough about how gorgeous Wraight's prose can be and the way he portrays characters and scenes when he has the space and freedom, as he has here. There is a lyrical, poetic artistry that draws in so much detail that if I had a greater vocabulary I would be able to describe more accurately, but all I have is environmental storytelling. I feel I get so much more of a sense of the armament and scale of the palace and the lands and people around it from this story than others and, despite my hypoaphantasia, can see what Wraight writes clearly.
The only issues I have are two minor details. The first being, I think the choice to have the human who talks to Shiban speaking in broken English, presumably broken Low Gothic? was a poor one that seemed clunky and felt off in a way I am struggling to describe. The other is the incredibly awkward and unfortunate use of contrasting a fully armour Astartes warrior and a "female"... Just fuck off with that casual misogyny. It sucks and Wraight is not guilty of it so often, but yeah. Otherwise, I loved this story.
I am to understand from the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project that Wraight's Primarchs book is somewhat a retrospective, in being from time across the Grey Crusade and up to the Siege, and victory lap with not so many authors retaining writing duties for the Legion progenitors they wrote for in the main series, so I look forward to that, but I feel like this was a perfect end.
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 21.41 Horus Heresy novels, 12 novellas, 60 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 12 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.
March 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XI Ordu of the Khan (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus...) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus series and extras.
This marks the official end of the Ordu of the Khan omnibus, but I will save my reflection on this narrative for the Khagan's Primarchs book next up.
Shiban, the Chogorian White Scar, who along with the waywayd Thousand Son, the Weathermaker and sacrificial guide of the Ordu, the Khagan, and the Terran Officer, played a starring role in this grand story of the Ordu of Jaghatai has made it to Terra, barely. His battered body and improvised augemetics from the years of harrowing the Traitors need serious work. Throughout his intense surgeries he has fleeting visions of the fallen, before seeing the wise officer one last time and heading out to honour the other major player on the Wraight Heresy, as I came to call him, the Terran Scar, once of the homeworld, almost of the Luna Wolves, and always, if complicatedly, of the White Scars.
This is a beautifully written story that reads almost as an elegy for everything the White Scars were before the Siege of Terra, itself glimpsed in the final moments of this story. It is a wonderful coda on the story of the V Legion and the Wraight Heresy. I know I didn't have a favourable reaction to The Path of Heaven, but this has been an incredible arc with some phenomenal stories with vivid characters, which this feels like such a perfect button on.
I really can't say enough about how gorgeous Wraight's prose can be and the way he portrays characters and scenes when he has the space and freedom, as he has here. There is a lyrical, poetic artistry that draws in so much detail that if I had a greater vocabulary I would be able to describe more accurately, but all I have is environmental storytelling. I feel I get so much more of a sense of the armament and scale of the palace and the lands and people around it from this story than others and, despite my hypoaphantasia, can see what Wraight writes clearly.
The only issues I have are two minor details. The first being, I think the choice to have the human who talks to Shiban speaking in broken English, presumably broken Low Gothic? was a poor one that seemed clunky and felt off in a way I am struggling to describe. The other is the incredibly awkward and unfortunate use of contrasting a fully armour Astartes warrior and a "female"... Just fuck off with that casual misogyny. It sucks and Wraight is not guilty of it so often, but yeah. Otherwise, I loved this story.
I am to understand from the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project that Wraight's Primarchs book is somewhat a retrospective, in being from time across the Grey Crusade and up to the Siege, and victory lap with not so many authors retaining writing duties for the Legion progenitors they wrote for in the main series, so I look forward to that, but I feel like this was a perfect end.
Through using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project (www.heresyomnibus.com) and my own choices, I have currently read 21.41 Horus Heresy novels, 12 novellas, 60 short stories/ audio dramas, as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, 12 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels...this run. I can't say enough good about the way the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project suggestions. I'm loving it! Especially after originally reading to the releases and being so frustrated at having to wait so long for a narrative to continue.
December 31, 2024
It's a nice story, and right when I thought it was a 1-star, it started delivering again. 3.5 stars?
It has an emotional narrative (which I like), but it didn't fully work for me. The story was too descriptive and, at some point, it felt like it forgot it's plot. It took a while for it to "go back to the story" in my opinion.
It did paint a nice picture of what Terra looked like right before the war came, but I don't know that it satisfied me. Although I appreciate it, it felt like a distraction, and it's too short for that.
I was expecting some fighting at the start, but gave up on any hopes of there being any, and then a fight came... but it was underwhelming.
I had my eyes on another White Scars short story. I don't think this one made me give up on the chapter, but I wish I liked it more.
It has an emotional narrative (which I like), but it didn't fully work for me. The story was too descriptive and, at some point, it felt like it forgot it's plot. It took a while for it to "go back to the story" in my opinion.
It did paint a nice picture of what Terra looked like right before the war came, but I don't know that it satisfied me. Although I appreciate it, it felt like a distraction, and it's too short for that.
I was expecting some fighting at the start, but gave up on any hopes of there being any, and then a fight came... but it was underwhelming.
I had my eyes on another White Scars short story. I don't think this one made me give up on the chapter, but I wish I liked it more.
August 29, 2025
“No backward step”
We have been on a long journey with Shiban Khan, starting in “Brotherhood of the Storm” we were introduced to an enthusiastic laughing warrior that embraced his Chorgorian heritage and who fought with joy and speed. In “Scars” he discovered that not all was well within his Legion and experiences great betrayal by one he called brother, Torghun Khan. By the events of “The Path of Heaven” he had changed greatly, his good nature shaved down by the brutality of war, his laughter gone, traded for a grimace. He no longer fought with speed and grace but rather with brutality. He was once a poet but no longer, so much has been taken by the war, his brothers, his joy, his laughter. His last meeting with Torghun saw him deliver angry, poisonous words.
Now he is on Terra, the mechanical limbs that had been crudely put together in between savage battles with the traitors are replaced by more finely crafted augmetics. The Imperial Palace is undergoing great change as Terra prepares for war. And Shiban too will change, as he lets go of his grievances.
A beautifully written story, emotionally charged and deeply satisfying conclusion to the story of Torghun Khan, born on Terra, trained to be a Luna Wolf, but died a White Scar. A very introspective and character-focused short story that paves the way for the Siege of Terra.
“Restorer” so can take on multiple meanings
We have been on a long journey with Shiban Khan, starting in “Brotherhood of the Storm” we were introduced to an enthusiastic laughing warrior that embraced his Chorgorian heritage and who fought with joy and speed. In “Scars” he discovered that not all was well within his Legion and experiences great betrayal by one he called brother, Torghun Khan. By the events of “The Path of Heaven” he had changed greatly, his good nature shaved down by the brutality of war, his laughter gone, traded for a grimace. He no longer fought with speed and grace but rather with brutality. He was once a poet but no longer, so much has been taken by the war, his brothers, his joy, his laughter. His last meeting with Torghun saw him deliver angry, poisonous words.
Now he is on Terra, the mechanical limbs that had been crudely put together in between savage battles with the traitors are replaced by more finely crafted augmetics. The Imperial Palace is undergoing great change as Terra prepares for war. And Shiban too will change, as he lets go of his grievances.
A beautifully written story, emotionally charged and deeply satisfying conclusion to the story of Torghun Khan, born on Terra, trained to be a Luna Wolf, but died a White Scar. A very introspective and character-focused short story that paves the way for the Siege of Terra.
“Restorer” so can take on multiple meanings
September 7, 2017
Firstly - this story is ENTIRELY spoilerific if you haven't read The Path of Heaven, so be warned.
It sees Shiban Khan back on Terra, attempting to recover both physically and psychologically from the various traumas he’s suffered since Prospero. Taking in the corridors of the Imperial Palace and the wilds of pre-Siege Terra, it’s a story of reflection and atmosphere as much as action.
It’s hard not to hope for more White Scars from Wraight, but if this is his last Scars story it’s a powerful one to finish with.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2017/08/...
It sees Shiban Khan back on Terra, attempting to recover both physically and psychologically from the various traumas he’s suffered since Prospero. Taking in the corridors of the Imperial Palace and the wilds of pre-Siege Terra, it’s a story of reflection and atmosphere as much as action.
It’s hard not to hope for more White Scars from Wraight, but if this is his last Scars story it’s a powerful one to finish with.
Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2017/08/...
August 28, 2017
Wright does an excellent job of portraying the calm before the storm and how a marine deals with the mental scarring bought about by being at war for an extended period. This excellent little story is short on action but it doesn't suffer because of it in fact it only enhances the overall point of the story when the action really kicks off. Brilliant from start to finish.
August 14, 2025
One of the stronger short-stories that felt like a good epilogue to the events of the White Scars march to Terra.
Shiban Khan picking up the pieces of himself quite literally, and performing his own manner of last rites for Torghun (Haren Svensellen). This one felt impactful and reflective. Definitely a standout amongst the other true "short-stories" for the HH anthology
Shiban Khan picking up the pieces of himself quite literally, and performing his own manner of last rites for Torghun (Haren Svensellen). This one felt impactful and reflective. Definitely a standout amongst the other true "short-stories" for the HH anthology
November 17, 2023
a perfect ending to both their arcs
Wraight’s mastery of character creation, consistency and conclusion is a thing to behold. And this ending though sad, is perfect.
Wraight’s mastery of character creation, consistency and conclusion is a thing to behold. And this ending though sad, is perfect.
July 22, 2025
To know and understand ones enemy is a virtue. To know and understand your Brother is a Blessing.
Amazing Short.
Amazing Short.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews